Revelation 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter holds the last three of the seven letters sent to churches, addressed to Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Sardis has a name for being alive but is told it is dead and must wake up; Philadelphia has only a little strength but is given an open door and a promise of keeping from the hour of testing; Laodicea calls itself rich and is called lukewarm, and is told to buy from Christ what it actually lacks. Each letter closes with a promise to the one who overcomes and the same call to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • A message is to be written to the angel of the church in Sardis.
   • The speaker is described as the one who has the seven Spirits of God.
   • The speaker is described as the one who has the seven stars.
   • The speaker says he knows the church's works.
   • The speaker says the church has a name that it is alive.
   • The speaker says the church is dead.
2. 3:2
   • The speaker commands the church to be watchful.
   • The speaker commands the church to strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die.
   • The speaker says he has not found the church's works completed before his God.
3. 3:3
   • The speaker commands the church to remember how it received and heard.
   • The speaker commands the church to hold fast.
   • The speaker commands the church to repent.
   • The speaker says that if the church does not watch, he will come as a thief.
   • The speaker says the church will not know at what hour he will come upon it.
4. 3:4
   • The speaker says the church has a few names in Sardis.
   • Those few have not defiled their garments.
   • The speaker says they shall walk with him in white.
   • The speaker says they are worthy.
5. 3:5
   • The speaker says the one who overcomes shall be clothed in white raiment.
   • The speaker says he will not blot out that person's name out of the book of life.
   • The speaker says he will confess that person's name before his Father.
   • The speaker says he will confess that person's name before his Father's angels.
6. 3:6
   • The one who has an ear is commanded to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
7. 3:7
   • A message is to be written to the angel of the church in Philadelphia.
   • The speaker is described as holy.
   • The speaker is described as true.
   • The speaker is described as having the key of David.
   • The speaker opens and no one shuts.
   • The speaker shuts and no one opens.
8. 3:8
   • The speaker says he knows the church's works.
   • The speaker says he has set before the church an opened door.
   • The speaker says no one can shut that door.
   • The speaker says the church has a little strength.
   • The speaker says the church has kept his word.
   • The speaker says the church has not denied his name.
9. 3:9
   • The speaker refers to those of the synagogue of Satan.
   • Those people say they are Jews.
   • Those people are not Jews.
   • Those people lie.
   • The speaker says he will make them come and worship before the church's feet.
   • The speaker says he will make them know that he has loved the church.
10. 3:10
    • The speaker says the church has kept the word of his patient endurance.
    • The speaker says he will keep the church from the hour of testing.
    • The hour of testing is about to come upon the whole inhabited world.
    • The purpose of that hour is to test those who dwell on the earth.
11. 3:11
    • The speaker says he comes quickly.
    • The speaker commands the church to hold fast what it has.
    • The purpose is that no one take the church's crown.
12. 3:12
    • The speaker says he will make the one who overcomes a pillar in the temple of his God.
    • The speaker says that person shall go out no more.
    • The speaker says he will write on that person the name of his God.
    • The speaker says he will write on that person the name of the city of his God.
    • The city of his God is the new Jerusalem.
    • The new Jerusalem comes down out of heaven from his God.
    • The speaker says he will write on that person his own new name.
13. 3:13
    • The one who has an ear is commanded to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
14. 3:14
    • A message is to be written to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans.
    • The speaker is called the Amen.
    • The speaker is called the faithful and true witness.
    • The speaker is called the beginning of the creation of God.
15. 3:15
    • The speaker says he knows the church's works.
    • The speaker says the church is neither cold nor hot.
    • The speaker wishes the church were cold or hot.
16. 3:16
    • The speaker says the church is lukewarm.
    • The speaker says the church is neither hot nor cold.
    • The speaker says he is about to spit the church out of his mouth.
17. 3:17
    • The church says it is rich.
    • The church says it has become wealthy.
    • The church says it has need of nothing.
    • The speaker says the church does not know that it is wretched.
    • The speaker says the church is miserable.
    • The speaker says the church is poor.
    • The speaker says the church is blind.
    • The speaker says the church is naked.
18. 3:18
    • The speaker counsels the church to buy from him gold refined by fire, so that it may be rich.
    • The speaker counsels the church to buy white garments, so that it may be clothed and the shame of its nakedness not appear.
    • The speaker counsels the church to buy eyesalve to anoint its eyes, so that it may see.
19. 3:19
    • The speaker says he rebukes and disciplines as many as he loves.
    • The speaker commands the church to be zealous.
    • The speaker commands the church to repent.
20. 3:20
    • The speaker says he stands at the door and knocks.
    • The speaker says that if anyone hears his voice and opens the door, he will come in to that person.
    • The speaker says he will dine with that person.
    • The speaker says that person will dine with him.
21. 3:21
    • The speaker says he will grant the one who overcomes to sit with him on his throne.
    • The speaker says he himself overcame.
    • The speaker says he sat down with his Father on his Father's throne.
22. 3:22
    • The one who has an ear is commanded to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

"Angel" translates a Greek word meaning messenger, and it can refer either to a heavenly being or to a human envoy, so it is left open whether each of these seven letters is addressed to a spirit, to a leader of the congregation, or to the congregation itself. Sardis was an ancient capital in western Asia Minor (now western Turkey), rich from wool and dyed textiles and from gold taken out of the river below it. "The seven Spirits of God" and "the seven stars" pick up the opening vision of the book, where the stars are identified as the angels of the seven churches (1:20); seven runs through Revelation as a number of fullness. "A name that thou livest" uses "name" in the older sense of reputation, what a person or a place is known for.

3:2

In 1611 "perfect" meant finished or complete, not morally flawless. The Greek says the congregation's deeds have not been found filled up or brought to completion in God's sight.

3:3

"Watch" here means stay awake and keep guard, the work of a night sentry. The thief image is about timing rather than theft: a burglar arrives at the hour nobody expects. The picture would have stung in Sardis, whose fortress hill was thought unassailable and was twice taken by night, once by the Persians and once by the Seleucids, because the guards were not watching the cliff path.

3:4

"A few names" uses "names" to mean persons, the way a list of names stands for the people on it. Clothing carried social weight: soiled garments shut a person out of a temple across much of the ancient world, while white was worn at festivals, at civic honors, and by victors in a triumphal procession.

3:5

"The book of life" draws on the civic register that a Greek city kept of its citizens, a roll from which a name was struck out at death or after a serious crime. The image of a divine register of the living is already in the Hebrew scriptures (Exodus 32:32, Psalm 69:28). To "confess his name" is to acknowledge someone openly and on the record, the way a witness speaks up in court.

3:6

This sentence closes each of the seven letters. "He that hath an ear" is singular, addressing each listener one at a time, while "the churches" is plural: every letter was meant to be read aloud in all seven congregations, not only in the one it names. The same formula appears in the sayings of Jesus in the gospels.

3:7

Philadelphia was a smaller city southeast of Sardis, founded as a Greek settlement on the edge of the Lydian highlands. "The key of David" quotes Isaiah 22:22, where the key of the house of David is taken from one palace steward and given to another, Eliakim; the steward with the key decided who was admitted to the king and who was not. The point of the image is authority over access.

3:8

"A little strength" is not a comment on the quality of their faith but on their size and resources: this was a small congregation with little power in the city. "An open door" was a common figure for an opportunity, especially an opening for preaching (Paul uses it that way in 1 Corinthians 16:9 and 2 Corinthians 2:12); following the key of verse 7, it can also mean admission granted, and the wording lets both senses stand.

3:9

"Synagogue" is simply the Greek word for an assembly or gathering, and "Satan" is a Hebrew word meaning adversary or accuser. The dispute behind the verse is over who has the right to the name Jew in a city where the Christian congregation and the established Jewish community both claimed the same heritage. The picture of others coming to bow at their feet reverses the language of Isaiah 45:14, 49:23 and 60:14, where the nations bow before Israel.

3:10

"The word of my patience" is a compressed phrase in Greek and can mean either my message about endurance or my message that calls for endurance. The word behind "patience" means holding out under a load, staying at your post under pressure, rather than waiting quietly. "Temptation" and "try" in 1611 English mean a test and to test; the sense is a trial that proves what someone is, not an enticement to do wrong.

3:11

The "crown" is a stephanos, the wreath of leaves placed on a winning athlete or on a citizen honored by his city, not a royal crown; Greek uses a different word, diadema, for that. The image is of a prize already won that someone else could still walk off with.

3:12

Temples in this region were ringed with columns carrying inscriptions that named donors, priests and civic benefactors, so a pillar bearing a name was a permanent public record of belonging. "He shall go no more out" would have carried weight in Philadelphia, which sat on an earthquake fault, was destroyed in AD 17 and shaken repeatedly afterward, so that people left the city and camped in the open. Writing a name on a person marks whose they are, as a name stamped on property or inscribed on a stone marks its owner.

3:14

Laodicea was a wealthy banking and textile city in the Lycus valley; after the earthquake of about AD 60 it refused imperial relief money and rebuilt at its own cost. "The Amen" uses the Hebrew word normally said after a statement to affirm it, meaning it is firm, it is certain; here it is used as a title. "Witness" translates martys, the ordinary word for someone giving testimony in court. "The beginning of the creation of God" turns on the Greek word arche, which can mean starting point, source or origin, or ruler; the phrase can be read either as first of the things God created or as the origin from which God's creation comes, and it has been read both ways since antiquity.

3:15

Laodicea's own water was piped in over several miles from warm mineral springs and arrived tepid and heavy with deposits. Just across the valley, Hierapolis had hot springs used for bathing and healing, and Colossae had cold, fresh mountain water. Hot water and cold water were each good for something; the local lukewarm supply was good for neither.

3:16

"Spue" is the older spelling of spew; the Greek verb means to vomit, and it is deliberately crude.

3:17

"Increased with goods" means grown wealthy. "Miserable" in 1611 means pitiable, someone others would pity, not someone who feels sad.

3:18

Each item answers something Laodicea was proud of. Gold "tried in the fire" is ore melted so the impurities burn away and only true metal is left, and Laodicea was a banking center rich in gold. The city's textile trade was built on a glossy black wool, against which white cloth stands out. And it had a well-known medical school associated with an eye powder that was mixed into a paste and smeared on the eyelids.

3:19

"Chasten" translates a word for training or correcting a child, the discipline a parent gives rather than a punishment handed down by a court; the line echoes Proverbs 3:12. "Be zealous" means be at a boil, be in earnest, which plays back on the hot and cold of verses 15 and 16.

3:20

To "sup" is to eat the deipnon, the main meal of the day, taken in the evening at leisure and with company. Sharing it was a social act rather than simply eating: it meant acceptance, friendship and standing in someone's house.

3:21

In the ancient world a second seat on the ruler's throne belonged to a co-regent or to the honored heir, someone who exercised the ruler's own authority. The picture is of sharing the seat, not standing beside it.